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Patterns

             What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. (II Timothy 1:13-14)

          Worldview: a comprehensive conception or apprehension of the world, particularly from a specific standpoint. It represents the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society, encompassing their knowledge, culture, and point of view. Additionally, it can be described as a philosophy of the universe and humanity's relation to it (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, online.)

          A worldview is or includes one’s knowledge, culture, and point of view, and it is one’s philosophy of the universe and our relation to it. As such, it is indistinguishable from one’s religion. This does not mean that one’s worldview is (by definition) the same as the established doctrines of one’s faith, because even though people profess to believe all that their religion teaches, we tend to have some points where we’re not really comfortable saying, “Yep, that’s absolutely right!” Worldviews are ultimately individual.

          What’s more, a worldview is only as good as its correlation to reality. Using a ridiculous example, having a worldview that American Bison are fluffy cows with which you can safely take selfies is not likely to end well. Similarly, selfies with cute, cuddly bear cubs on a trail somewhere. Worldviews worthy of our acceptance stay as close to reality as possible. Since wisdom involves dealing with what’s really real, one’s goal should be to have a worldview that is wise.

          One of the challenges of worldviews is internal consistency. This is a point on which we need to be careful. Sometimes, people begin with their worldview or their presupposition and judge someone else’s statement as being wrong because it is not consistent with the people’s. Some people claim that a Christian worldview is inconsistent with the Bible if the Christian eats ham. Acts 10 and 15, and several of the Epistles make it clear that the Jewish Law was not and should not be imposed on the Gentile Church as a monolithic whole.

          That being said, in today’s passage Paul told Timothy to keep what his teaching as a pattern for sound teaching. What Paul taught was consistent with what Jesus taught, and what Jesus taught was consistent with the morality of the Old Testament, if not with the every exhaustive detail. 

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